Tyrant's 1985 debut album, Legions of the Dead, followed the band's appearance on the Metal Massacre, Vol. 3 collection two years prior, where their song "Armageddon" (re-recorded here with the expanded title of "The Battle of Armageddon") sat side by side with contributions by rising underground metal bands like Bitch, Agent Steel, and Znowhite, as well as future metal legends Slayer! Unfortunately, Tyrant's overall career achievements would never compare with any of these acts, and the crude production, spotty execution, and abundant songwriting clichés displayed by this album exemplify just why. At the time of its release, these issues (best exemplified by Glen May's high-pitched screams) weren't nearly as obvious, but all these years later, would-be fist-pumping anthems like "Warriors of Metal," "Fall into the Hands of Evil," and "Thru the Night" seem almost impossibly naïve and unimaginative. Meanwhile, specific blunders like the incompetently epic title track, the amusing spoken growl snippet "Tyrant's Revelation," and the concession to synthesizers of "Sacrifice" have only guitarist Rocky Rockwell's impressive chops to recommend them. So the only way for modern fans to appreciate Legions of the Dead is to hop on a wave of pure nostalgia, a wave that perhaps none but those who were alive and headbanging in those ancient, simpler times, before heavy metal's genre templates had been finessed and then expanded in hundreds of intriguing directions, can arguably attain. Otherwise, Tyrant's first album is an absolute relic in every sense of the term: it's really difficult to laugh with it instead of at it.
© Eduardo Rivadavia /TiVo